The Snake and the Schoolhouse

Updated June 3, 2004 12:01 am ET

We wish only the best for the Alameda whipsnake. Ditto for the California red-legged frog. But surely even in the shadow of San Francisco there's a way to accommodate these two species without scrapping a new schoolhouse for 650 children in the largely working-class city of Hayward.

No doubt that was the idea behind the City Council's approval of a plan for the Blue Rock development that will include several hundred luxury homes (which expands the tax base), a golf course and Hayward's first new public school in nearly 40 years....